About

Clans of Caledonia: A Game about Whisky, Trade, and Glory

€391,228

pledged of €29,000 goal

6,427

backers

Clans of Caledonia is a highly replayable economic strategy game for 1 to 4 players set in 19th century Scotland. It was an era when Scotland made the challenging transition from an agricultural country to an industrialized one, heavily relying on trade and export.

As proud members of the old clans you use your unique abilities and cunning skill to earn the greatest wealth and fame.

The game is designed by Juma Al-JouJou, a solo-entrepreneur and founder of Karma Games. Juma has also designed and self-published Green Deal which Tom Vasel rated as the 5th best economic game of all time. Clans of Caledonia is illustrated by Klemens Franz, the illustrator of award-winning games such as Agricola, Caverna and Isle of Skye.

Clans of Caledonia has a unique blend of mechanisms and includes elements of engine-building games (e.g. Terra Mystica) and economic mechanisms such as a dynamic market (e.g. Navegador) and export contracts (e.g. Voyages of Marco Polo).

The way you produce whisky, bread and cheese from grain and milk is interwoven with the trade and export of goods. This makes it a highly interactive strategy game, with great strategic depth despite having a very accessible rule set.

The modular board, the 8 different clans with unique powers and the multiple scoring and port tiles ensure outstanding replayability.

In addition to all the components from the Clans of Caledonia pledge level including all Stretch Goals, the Premium Clans of Caledonia pledge level includes 70 metal coins and a KS exclusive box sleeve.

Metal Coins

Money is so important in this game! Upgrading the coins to 70 metal coins is the best upgrade possible. It feels great to hold heavy coins in your hands and their jinglingsound is music in the ears of their wealthy and proud owner! In addition, there is basically no wear and tear! Perfect for a game with such a high replayability.

The supplier is producing sample coins right now. The producer of the metal coins is the same supplier as the one for Scythe from Stonemaier Games, so expect some awesome metal coins!

Exclusivity: The sleeves and metal coins will not be widely available after the Kickstarter. There will only be enough sleeves printed to cover replacements. Take note that we also reserve the right to print similar box sleeves for special releases. Due to the high cost of producing metal coins, it is expected they will be very limited in retail.

We also want to give you the chance to shape the final product in a truly unique way! You can make suggestions and vote first for an additional porttile, then for a scoring tile and finally for a clan tile. At certain points during the campaign, voting for these will take place and will end:

Participate and shape the final product!

You, Kickstarer backers, will add one extra port, scoring and clan tile that will be included in every single game in this print run! The additional 9th clan will also be eternalized on the box sleeve. These additional tiles will be clearly marked as untested. The community of players can playtest and balance these tiles after release together.

The earlier you join in, the more you can shape the final game! Join this FB group to submit your ideas and vote!

Clans of Caledonia includes more than 220 custom wooden tokens, a modular map and a full solo variant including custom silk-screened dice. We recognise that many of these features are often added as stretch goals but we don't want to compromise a top quality final product. Also, we don't want to risk the game balance by adding content that was not playtested (and that is not marked as untested).

Even though we think that is the case, we are still going to add a few more components with your help!

Clans of Caledonia was heavily playtested and I continued tweaking and balancing the game even when everyone thought I should stop. Thus, I am confident that, if it's a style of game you usually like, you will love Clans of Caledonia!

I strongly believe it's a stellar product that is truly outstanding and can bear comparison with the best Euro games on the market today.

Inspired by the so-called Stonemaier Method, we will ship games in bulk to fulfillment centers around the world to reduce customs fees & VAT and to keep shipping prices low. Country codes are here.

Shipping fee automatically added at checkout.

Backers are limited to 2 games per pledge (any combination is fine; you will only pay the shipping fee once per pledge, not once per game). To add an additional game beyond the first, manually enter the € total when making your pledge or click the "Manage your pledge" button at the top of the page.

Shipping costs are heavily subsidized. If we had subsidized shipping even more to make it free in the US, we would have had to increase the pledge by €10. So we deliberately kept the tier low so you can actually save money by pleding for two copies because you pay shipping only once per pledge.

We will be shipping from within US, within EU, within Canada and within China to the respective backers. Depending on the success of the campaign, we may also ship from within Australia.

Customs & Duty Free Shipping in US, EU and CA

The game will contain two rulebooks, one rulebook in English, and one in German. Since the game materials are language independent, we plan to offer digital files of translations of the rules in various languages.

The game comes with printed rulebooks in English and German.

Translations in French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch will be provided as digital files online.

Juma is a solo-entrepreneur and game designer. There is no big publisher behind this project. Consequently Kickstarter is the only way for Juma to publish this game as it helps him to assess the level of demand for the game and to finance the costly production.

All Kickstarter backers receive a money-back guarantee, but the sooner you back the better your guarantee is. Backers during the first 3 days receive even a 110% money-back guarantee!

Shape the final product! Based on your suggestions and votes, we will add one additional clan, one additional scoring tile and one additional port tile. The earlier you pledge, the more you can participate.

Approximately 30% off MRSP and subsidized shipping: you are not likely to get this game cheaper any time soon. We are known for keeping our prices stable.

Exclusivity: The sleeves and metal coins will not be widely available after the Kickstarter.

There is no big publisher behind Clans of Caledonia so without your pledges this game won't be produced at all.

By backing this Kickstarter, you allow me to devote more time to our awesome hobby and bring more great games to you soon!

We like to support game stores around the world by offering either version of the game to retailers during the campaign. Retailer backers, just like other backers, will receive their rewards before the games will go into distribution. If you're a retailer, please contact Juma at juma@karma-games.de (please use "Retailer" in the email object) during the campaign for pricing information.

About the Creators

I am Juma.

I am the father of a small family in Berlin (Germany) and an avid gamer. I studied Philosophy & Economics (bachelor's degree) and Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship / Business Administration (master's degree). No wonder I love economic games.

Karma Games is just me - there are no emloyees, no marketing manager, I do it all! :)

When I was 16 I participated in a music school exchange program and was hosted by a lovely Scottish family on the Isle of Bute, west of Glasgow. I believe that the design process of this game can be traced back to that great experience!

Klemens Franz is the illustrator of Clans of Caledonia. Klemens has illustrated many award-winning strategy games such as Agricola, Caverna and Isle of Skye. Klemens is based in Austria: http://www.atelier198.com/

Dan Cunningham, founder of Iron Kitten Games, reached out to me, a few months ago and asked if he could help. He was incredibly helpful with various tasks, from creating 3D renders and animations, to production, Tabletopia implementation and Kickstarter related issues (a truly multitalented individual!).

Michael Csorba, recently asked if he could help and supports me with communication and running the Kickstarter. He is the only one who also resides in Berlin, it's great to see a team member face to face once in a while!

Adriano Rahde, from Ao Amor in Brazil, has created the amazing Kickstarter video trailer! Thank you!

Playtesters: More than 50 regular playtesters helped to create this awesome game. I'm grateful that you were all willing to play the prototype again and again - even in the early stages of development when it was still rough around the edges. Your contribution and feedback was invaluable!

A lot more people actively reached out to me and offered help, some Boardgamegeek users who helped so much with editing the rules (especially Francois Landry Corbin, Mike Poole, Steven Barba and many more). The truth is: without the many people who volunteered to help, this game would not be as great as it is. It was a real community effort. I was, and still am, amazed how awesome so many board game enthusiasts are. Thank you all!

Other Products

Juma designed two other games that you can order from the Karma Gameswebsite.

Fette Ernte is a card game for 3 to 5 kids to learn about growing vegetables (only available in German).

Risks and challenges

I do have some experience with managing and fulfilling a crowd funding project. My last campaign was delivered one month ahead of schedule and only four months after the campaign finished. That game was also called 5th best economic game of all time by Tom Vasel.

Despite my experience, there are still some risks involved that everyone backing the project must be aware of.

There could be delays: freight and worldwide fulfillment is complex and involves numerous companies. I read everything about the topic on Stonemaier Games' blog (an invaluable resource, thank you Jamey!) and consulted other creators for tips and tricks on how to manage fulfillment the best way possible.

In addition, I decided to work with the best fulfillment partners even if it comes at a higher cost.

Due to proximity to the fulfillment centers or the factory some backers will receive their games significantly earlier than others. The majority of backers should receive their games around October 2017, ideally a few weeks before the game fair in Essen, though. If delays arise it may happen that the game is available at the game fair in Essen before some backers received their copies.

I will do my best to solve any problems that may arise and keep you regularly updated.

Clans of Caledonia features variable player powers. It's tough to balance an asymmetric game. In the beginning the game was playtested with 50+ different play testers. They provided diverse qualitative feedback that led to the final gameplay mechanisms.

Once the game mechanisms were nearly final, I focused on balancing the clans. Therefore, I playtested again and again with the best players of Clans of Caledonia only because the stats were far more reliable than with new players whose skills varies a lot. I gathered the stats, fine tuned the clans and made some quantitative analyses in Excel that indicated that the clans are very well balanced. My playtesters agreed.

Nonetheless I am aware that other games with variable player powers ended up being perceived by players as much less balanced than the creators predicted. In order to mitigate this risk, I included a Clan auction variant that ensures nearly 100% fairness. Furthermore, one can also play this game without variable player powers.